Thursday, February 14, 2002

FABIAN NICIEZA TALKS THUNDERBOLTS

Fabian Nicieza is taking Marvel Comics' Thunderbolts on a two-track ride this summer as the title goes bi-weekly.

Nicieza checked in with The Continuum on Wednesday to explain the double-tiered, alternating story arc, how it came about and where it will take the Thunderbolts -- in inimitable Nicieza fashion.

Here's what he wrote:

"Well, it all started with a bright-eyed, eager little boy named Fabian looking at his life and saying, 'I need to get more $%#@! work!' This revelation came to me after I heard my wife in the other room paying the bills and shouting, 'You need to get more #@$% work!'

"And then I did what I always do: I ignored her and escaped into the wonderful world of writing superheroic adventure fiction. I looked at the monthly book I was writing, an enjoyable stew called Thunderbolts and said, 'At this rate, my #@$% Hawkeye On The Run From The Law sub-plot is going to last forever!'

"I had the original Thunderbolts now on Counter-Earth deciding if they should leave the planet, save the planet or just RULE the planet! I had Hawkeye on the run on 'real' Earth, allied with a group of villains doing some nasty things for a 'greater good.'

"What to do when you have two distinct, but equally appealing and equally appropriate, status quo situations in your book?

"How do you kill two birds with one stone? 'What if... what's best for the book is also what's best for me?' I said to myself. Really, Out loud. My wife said 'What?' from the other side of the house. I said, 'Nothing dear, just cackling with glee.'

"I had a solution! It was sheer genius! I had the righteous sword of Truth as my ammunition! I had Creativity as my shield! So I meekly approached my almighty Editor and said, 'You know how in June we're shipping two issues cause we're not doing an Annual this year?'

"And he said, 'Uh-huh.'

"And I said, 'And you know how I didn't want to jump back and forth between issues showing the Bolts on one planet and Hawk on the other?'

"And he said, 'Uh-huh.'

"And I said, 'And remember how you were happy that we were narrowing our sub-plot focus, but I wasn't happy only devoting a few pages a month to Hawkeye?'

"And he said, 'Uh-huh.'

"And I said, 'How about if we just keep publishing the book bi-weekly?'

"And he harrumphs.

"And I said, 'We split the book apart -- odd number issues for Hawkeye's team and even numbered issues for the Bolts on Counter-Earth -- just until issue #75, and we bring it all together in a big double-sized climax!'

"And he didn't say anything. That meant he was thinking. Editors do that sometimes. Usually during leap years. I could hear the wheels turning over the dead air on the phone. He's thinking the angle. Can he sell it to the Omnipresent Ed in Chief? Can he sell it to the Omnipotent President? Do either of them even know they're still publishing this book? Can he risk it? Should he risk it? DARE he risk it?

"He said, 'Write it up.'

"So I did. Two-tracks, starting in June: Track 1 is an arc called 'Becoming Heroes,' drawn by series regular artist Patrick Zircher and it features Hawkeye gathering a group of characters who will help him complete the mission he went to prison for to begin with. Track 1 runs in Thunderbolts #65-67-69-71-73.

"Track #2 is an arc called 'Becoming Villains,' drawn by guest-artis Chris Batista, and it features the original Thunderbolts on Counter-Earth, saving the planet step by step, but possibly losing their souls in the meantime. Track 2 runs in Thunderbolts #66-68-70-72-74.

"All of it starts with clean 'first-issue' slates that allow new or returning readers to understand what's what and who's who. It continues on separate story tracks (with a few touches here and there linking story threads that savvy readers will spot). It all comes together for a big 75th issue hootenanny that will slam both teams together like fistfuls of ground veal and ground beef, mix it all up and bake it in the oven until you get a cool, weird, new VEEF combination (or Beal) out of it! That is to say, in English, that an exciting new status quo and team dynamic emerges from all of this.

"Pretty friggin' cool, huh? I mean, not cool like let's replay our teen years now that we're professionals and make all our superheroes dark and evil cool. No. Nowhere near as cool as that. But sure, cool form the standpoint that -- go figure -- THINGS HAPPEN in this book -- people change, learn, grow, screw-up, etc. Everything that will happen to the Thunderbolts' characters during this storyline ties into the themes that were first introduced in the series with the first issue: Can villains be redeemed? Who makes the decision when someone is redeemed or not? Is that an outsider's perspective... or can the answer only come from the face in the mirror?

"Like I said... cool..."